The one diary tip that changed my life this year

...............or how to be less busy

And relax…

I’m a busy person, in fact I’ve accidentally let myself get so busy recently I haven’t really got time to write this newsletter. Which isn’t a good thing. Being busy all the time is bad for us on every level.

So I thought I’d hop on here today and remind myself of something I learnt earlier this year which has had a significant effect on my addiction to being busy (for it is an addiction). Something that game me more time.

I wanted to share it with you in case it is useful. It may make you roll your eyes, but it may also make you think and this is what this newsletter should do (I hope).  I don’t normally quote the older white male when it comes to advice because I am consistently furious with the patriarchy or ‘raging” as my teenage son refers to it.

But earlier this year I read a piece of advice Warren Buffett gave to Bill Gates (bear with me). Buffett (phenomenally successful 88 year old billionaire CEO) told Gates that one of the reasons for his (Buffett’s) success was his decision to schedule time every day to just sit and think.

“I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think.,” he said, “That is very uncommon in American business. I read and think. So I do more reading and thinking, and make less impulse decisions than most people in business. I do it because I like this kind of life.” That’s the bit I liked best: the idea of doing it because you ‘like this kind of life”.

After I first read this I started to put ‘thinking’ or reading time physically into my diary. It sounds terribly luxurious doesn’t it, to put time doing nothing in particular into the day but it has been a game changer for me. During my thinking time I have had some of my best moments of clarity and I have some of my best ideas. I think it has made me healthier and happier too, gifting me moments of calm.

In her book Big Magic Elizabeth Gilbert talks about ideas as if they are butterflies. It’s a ‘decidedly unscientific’ approach she says but she thinks ideas are themselves energetic life forms who settle on the person who has the space for them. I love this theory, whether it is true or not. It makes sense that new ideas, or good ideas, will find no place in a busy mind, they won’t be able to squeeze themselves in alongside all the chaos of constantly busy days, will they? But they will more likely land upon those with time and space to welcome them in nourish them well.

Sometimes I forget how important it is to make space for this thinking time, to actively include it in my day. Old habits creep back in and before I know it the whole day is consumed with stuff to do for work and family. And often I subconsciously resist scheduling it in  as I feel guilty making this space in my day to read or think, I’ll feel as if I am sneaking away from responsibility, being lazy or perhaps avoiding the difficult stuff I have to do. It feels pretty self-indulgent too. But the days I do make the time are always, always better.

I know not everyone is as flexible with their diary as I am now in this stage of life, but there are always pockets of time to be found no matter what situation you are in, our time is after all the one thing we are in control of. Letting it get out of control is unhealthy and for some of us overwhelming.

This week Professor Cassie Holmes book Happier Hour landed in my work in-tray. It explains, with science, exactly how in control of our time we are and I’ll be reviewing it here for you in January. It promises advice on ‘how to spend your time for a better, more meaningful life’ so watch this space.  The premise is we need to change our perception of and investment in the time we have and it all starts by transforming just one hour of your life.

I’m leaving your happy hour thought here for you to investigate and try and perhaps gradually add into to your day, these are after all busy festive times.